Lecture I theme I: Subject and aims of the History of English

Lecture I

Theme I: Subject and aims of the History of English

Plans:

1. 
   The subject of the History of English.
   
2. 
   The aim of the History of English.
   
3. 
   Sources of the History of English.
   

Literature:

1. 
   Аракин В.Д. Очерки по истории английского языка. –M.: Просвещение, 1975. –298 с.
   

1. 
   Бруннер К. История английского языка. / Пер. с нем. яз.-M.: Иностранная литература, 1986. –348 с.
   

2. 
   Иванова И.Р., Беляева Т.М. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка. -Л.: Просвещение, 1973. – 276 с.
   
3. 
   Иванова И.Р., Чахоян Л.Р. История английского языка.-M.: МГУ, 1976. –180 с.
   
4. 
   Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка.-Л.: Просвещение, 1973. –332 с.
   
5. 
   Резник Р.В., Сорокина Т.А., Резник И.В. История английского языка (на английском языке). – 2-е изд. – М.: Флинта: Наука, 2003. – 496 с.
   

7. Смирницкий А.И. Хрестоматия по истории английского языка.

- M.,1983.

8. Baugh, A., Cable, Th. A History of the English Language. New

York, 1978.-446 pp.

9.Rastorguyeva T.A. A History of English. –M.: Vysšaja škola, 1983.

-347 pp.

10. Strang, B. A History of English. London, 1974.-523 pp.

1. This outline history covers the main events in the historical development of the English language: the history of its phonetic structure and spelling, the evolution of its grammatical system, the growth of its vocabulary, and also the changing historical conditions of English-speaking communities relevant to language history.

2. Through learning the history of the English language the student achieves a variety of aims, both theoretical and practical.

The history of the language is of considerable interest to all students of English, since the English language of today reflects many centuries of development. This is no less true of a foreign language. Therefore one of the aims of this course is to provide the student with knowledge of linguistic history sufficient to account for the principal features of present-day English.

Any student of English is well aware of the difficulties of reading and spelling English. The written from of the English word is conventional rather than phonetic. The values of Latin letters as used in English differ greatly from their respective values in other languages, e.g. French, German or Latin, example:

bit-[ bit] three letters-thee sounds	Full correspondence between Latin letters and English sounds
bite –[ bait]no four letters-thee sound	Correspondence between the vowels and their graphic representation: the final e is not pronounced, but conventionally serves to show that the preceding letter i has its English alphabetic value which is [ai], not [i] as in other languages
knight-[ nait] six letters-thee sounds	The letters k and hg do not stand for any sound but hg evidently shows that I stands for [ai]

The history of English sound and spelling accounts for these and similar peculiarities. Without going into details it will suffice to say that at the time when Latin characters were first used in Britain (7^th c.) writing was phonetic: the letters stood, roughly, for the same sounds as in Latin. Later, especially after the introduction of printing in the 15^th c, the written form of the word became fixed, while the sounds continued to change. This resulted in a growing discrepancy between letter and sound and in the modern peculiar use of Latin letters in English. Many modern spellings show how the words were pronounced some four or five hundred years ago, e.g. in the 14thc. knight sounded as [knix’t], root as [ro:t], talu as [‘ta:lu].

Another illustration may be drawn from the vocabulary. Since English belongs to the Germanic group of languages, it would be natural to expect that it has many words or roots in common with cognate Germanic languages: German, Swedish, Danish and others. Instead, we find many more words in Mod Exhaling exact parallels in the Romanic languages: French, Latin, and Spanish.

The word-give-is of native, Germanic origin, which is confirmed by the parallels from other Germanic tongues; the words-peace and army-are borrowings from Romance languages (note that in OE the respective words were Germanic.) In present-day English, the proportion of Romance roots is higher than that of native roots. The history of English will say when and how these borrowings were made and will thus account for the composition of the modern vocabulary.

As far as grammar is concerned, it can only be noted at this stage that the history of the language will supply explanations both regular features of the grammatical structure and for it’s specific peculiarities and exceptions. It will explain why English has so few inflections; how its “analytical” structure arose –with an abundance of compound forms and fixed word order; why modal verbs, unlike other verbs, take no ending –s in the 3^rd p. sg.; why some nouns add –en or change the root-vowel in the plural instead of adding –s (e.g. oxen, feet) and so on and so forth.

Another important aim of this course is of a more theoretical nature. While tracing the evolution of the English language through time, the student will be confronted with a number of theoretical questions such as the relationship between static’s and dynamics in language, the role of linguistic and extra linguistic factors, the interdependence of different processes in language history. These problems may be considered on a theoretical plane within the scope of general linguistics. In describing the evolution of English, they be discussed in respect of concrete linguistic facts, which will ensure a better understanding of these facts and will demonstrate the application of general principles to language material.

One more aim of this course is to provide the student of English with a wider philological outlook. The history of the English language shows the place of English in the linguistic world; it reveals its ties and contacts with other related and unrelated tongues.

3. Every living language changes through time. It is natural that no records of linguistic changes have ever been kept, as most changes pass unnoticed by contemporaries.

The history of the English language has been reconstructed on the basis of written records of different periods. The extant written texts in English are dated in the 7^th c; the earliest records in other Germanic languages go back to the 3^rd or 4^th c.

The development of English, however, began a long time before it was first recorded. In order to say where the English language came from, to what languages it is related, when and how it has acquired its specific features, one must get acquainted with some facts of the prewritten history of the Germanic group.

Certain information about the early stages of English and Germanic history is to be found in the works of ancient historians and geographers, especially Roman. They contain descriptions of Germanic tribes, personal names and place-names. Some data are also provided by early borrowings from Germanic made by other languages, e.g. the Finnish and the Baltic languages. But the bulk of our knowledge comes from scientific study of extant texts.